Last week I applied for a job via a Recruiter. They rang me on Tuesday and we had a discussion about the role and my experience, I also mentioned my personal situation that I had taken time out of work to care for my daughter, I then received a further call and they said that their client would like to see me and gave me a date and time for an interview which would have been next Tuesday.

This morning I received a phone call saying the client had changed their mind, gave excuses that I wouldn't be able to provide work references for the period and they were adamant that it had to be work references.

Now I am thinking is a returner to work being discriminated against, if the RTW was female wouldn't this be covered by sex discrimination? So if we bring in the Equality Act into this, hasn't the Recruiter and the client (Employer) made an enormous error?

It looks very much like indirect discrimination, an Employment Tribunal could award anywhere between £2000 and £6000, that itself.does not sound like a large amount but that will be coming out of someone's budget. People say to me, "wow you have had a lucky escape" but that isn't the point, this is the second time within a month that I have had discrimination, last I let it fly, it does make you wonder about the calibre of HR professionals that they treat candidates with such contempt.

Replies

Sounds like you have had an unpleasant experience. In the first instance you may wish to contact ACAS and they can advise you on the merits of your case. Also the next steps should you wish to pursue this.

I also think that in this scenario I would be tempted to identify who is their internal HR and make contact direclty. In my experience it is often the csae they may not realise the messages that line managers are providing to the agency. I am sure if you contact them and explain the situation they will look into this. I have dealt with similar cases with success where I have liaised direclty with HR and politley pointed out the issue and then this has been resolved without recourse to making claims, where ultimately nobody wins, in terms of stress for you and cost to the business.

Good Luck!

Sarah

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